Hostage
by OceanHeart23
Summary: These robbers made several mistakes. One was thinking they would get away with robbing the Musain. The second was holding them all up at gunpoint. Yeah they didn't appreciate that. Yet the most important of all was hurting Marius in front of them, that was something that just would not be tolerated.


**A/N:** This is my second Les Miserables story again set in a modern AU. It's also primarily gen and friendship.  
**Warnings:** There is the occasional swear word. Also this story is unbeta'd so future apologies for any grammatical mistakes.  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own Les Miserables and make no money from writing this

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It wasn't really unusual for Marius to be late for meetings. It was a smaller group than normal as Joly, Bossuet, and Musichetta were away for the weekend. Feuilly was working his third job the graveyard shift, and Cosette wanted a break from the constant testosterone. So she dragged Eponine away for a girl's night that left in attendance: Enjolras, Combeferre, Courfeyrac, Jehan, Bahorel, and Grantaire.

The meeting commenced as normal or as normal as it usually gets, when the doorway opened with Marius standing in it.

"Marius," Enjolras began irritatedly. "So nice of you to finally show up you're-" The rest of his sentence dying in his mouth, as everyone realized Marius wasn't alone but being pushed through inside by two armed men wearing face masks. The first one took a hold of Marius's left arm pinning it tightly behind his back and moving the gun from the small of his back to the side of his neck. The second had his gun trained on the group as a whole

"What is the meaning of this?" Enjolras asked coldly posture now tense at the shift in atmosphere.

"Well it seems that you two know each other! We happened to pick this one up, and he's been ever so helpful to us to relieve the shops and businesses of their cash. See he makes the most wonderful hostage." Giving Marius's hair a quick pet. "So docile and submissive and seeming to inspire cooperation everywhere we go. Unfortunately most of the places we hit were closed for the night, so it's only been all to easy. However this might be the bigger score for the night."

"You really think the Musain cafe is going to be your biggest score for the night? What did you rob before here a library?" Bahorel couldn't help snarking back.

The first robber, who was holding Marius with the only really defining feature on his person being his one earring that looked like a pirate, gave a somewhat nasty grin. "Well look here puppet seems your friends aren't very bright otherwise they wouldn't be getting smart with me." With no warning what so ever he swung his gun hard at Marius's right cheek and the side of his face causing him to cry out with his hand flying up to press to his face and staggered a few steps to the side. This prompted some outraged shouts from the group.

"Enough! What exactly will it take for you to let Marius go and to leave quickly?" Enjolras angrily questioned hating the disadvantage they were all at the moment.

Pirate earring tutted slightly. "What we want is very simple all the cash in the register and all of the money and valuables you're carrying. Get on the ground hands out in front of you and slide over everything you have slowly. If we find out you've kept anything, then we take it out on your friend here."

Nobody moved at first and pirate earring started to look less amused. "I'm sorry, did I stutter? Get on the ground now!"

"Are you planning on killing us regardless? Because if so than I'd rather not hand over my six dollars willingly. You can pry it from my cold dead corpse."

Several in the group fought the urge to groan at Grantaire's response, and even Enjolras couldn't help muttering. "Shut up Grantaire."

Combeferre stared at the man holding Marius dead in the eye. "You know there's occupants on either side of this building and upstairs. Any gun shots fired is going to alert the police. You two don't seem like the type to want to go down for multiple homicides."

Pirate earring couldn't help shooting back a nasty grin before walking closer to Combeferre Marius still held out in front of him, but not close enough to allow himself within arms length of the group. "Well look who's Mr. Thinker got it all figured out. Are you sure about that?" He then raised his gun to point it at Combeferre's face trying to elicit a response. Combeferre's expression didn't change from its previous stoic countenance. He then switched it to Enjolras who merely managed to look defiant if a tad indignant in his eyes at the whole event. Moving it around he couldn't find the beginnings of fear on anyone's face except...

"Hmm you're right we would prefer to do this cleanly and without risking outside involvement. It seems I've been using the wrong pressure point which won't do." He stepped back with Marius a few feet from the rest of the group regaining that distance. Once again without warning he grabbed a bandanna from his pocket and within seconds had it wrapped around Marius neck. They could see without difficulty that this was cutting off his air supply rather effectively, and Marius face showed his absolute panic at that. His hands trying futilely to tug at the tightening cloth choking him. As expected this elicited further instant outrage from everyone.

"STOP IT!" Courfeyrac yelled before taking off his watch and grabbing his phone and wallet and sliding all three out towards the two robbers. He then took a seat on the ground furious and terrified at what was happening and placing his hands out on the ground in front of him waiting desperately for the man to let Marius go, so he could start breathing again. Thankfully this act prompted the others to quickly do the same Bahorel swearing all the while, and Marius was released allowing him to suck in large breaths of air.

"You're going to pay for that I hope you know." Grantaire threatened seriously. "Before the end of this night I swear you are going to regret coming here."

The thieves found that amusing and got a good laugh over what they deemed an empty threat after all they had everyone at gunpoint and the best hostage and form of leverage. They continued to collect everything they could from the group methodically.

However when they got to Enjolras, they took note of the fine watch along with the pretty well filled wallet plus platinum credit cards similar to Courfeyrac's. "My, my some of you lot are very well off indeed." Looking at Enjolras whose face was impassive for the moment. "It's possible we've picked the wrong hostages. How much you think we could get for ransom by taking these two with us?"

"My parents wouldn't pay you a dime." Enjolras replied evenly.

"Nor would mine." Courfeyrac echoed much the same. "They tend not to support criminal activity."

Pirate earring's lips quirked up and he lowered himself right up close to Courfeyrac's face looking him square in the eye. "You know what's funny is that answer never seems to hold up much weight when actually tested. Maybe we should make a few calls right now."

"I uh thought we were on a schedule. If you plan to drag more people into this it's only going to raise your chances of getting caught. I can help you get whatever ransom amount easier, then it would be trying to attempt that plan. It's your call but you know I'm right. I can promise to get you even more with some hacking tricks of mine."

Marius quietly interjected voice still a little hoarse trying his best to protect his friends. It was an obvious bluff as he was a barely passable hacker at best, but it would buy him some time so the others could get away safely. While this may have gotten him some confused and concerned glances, it appeared the message was understood by them. However there was absolutely no way that they were letting Marius get dragged away out the door by these two pieces of garbage.

The robbers seemed to agree with his logic, so with a patronizing agreement and a pat to his head they resumed collecting from the others. When they got to Grantaire, they were disappointed to just find an empty beer bottle, the earlier six dollars mentioned, and sketchbook slid across to them and nothing else not even a credit card.

"What's this?" Pirate earring asked impatiently. "Give us your phone and valuables now."

"Dude I'm poor. You really think that I look like I'm rolling in cash over here?" Grantaire replied sardonically with a gesture to his overall appearance paint stained clothes from Goodwill.

"Search him." Pirate earring barked. "But first give puppet your gun and he can train it on his little friends here. I could do with some entertainment here. Maybe put it in the curly haired one's mouth over there." Looking at Courfeyrac who only glared back at him. "Would keep him quiet at least. Plus this way it wouldn't get swiped by an amateur." Staring at Grantaire in amusement with a raised eyebrow.

Grantaire inwardly winced as his first plan just hit a roadblock. He wondered what the others were thinking and looked over at Enjolras. It looked like Combeferre's grip on his wrist was the only thing grounding him to the floor. The force of his glare nearly burning a giant hole on the other side of the room.

Marius looked even more panicked at these turn of events, and Grantaire felt a swell of sympathy for the man who started shaking at the thought of holding a gun on them especially with the suggestion to Courfeyrac. They definitely needed a plan soon or something to stop this like a distraction. Yeah that would be good. Looking around he caught Jehan's eye who gave him the subtlest head nod. Well at least one of them thought of something. Grantaire could only hope that when the time came. He could figure out what that would be in time to actually do something.

"No just please let them go. You have their money, and I'll help you get some more whatever you need. They're not necessary, so please just let them walk out of here unharmed."

"Shut up Marius." Bahorel said gruffly obviously not wanting Marius to continue to try to put the focus back on him.

Marius shot him a helpless look very much out of his depth trying to bargain.

Pirate earring looked at Marius much like one would a puppy trying to climb up the stairs only to fall down every time and deriving pleasure at the continuous failure. "I suppose it wouldn't be wise to give you a loaded weapon in the very unlikely chance you manage to shoot my partner." He then took a chance to caress Marius' face relishing his discomfort, until Enjolras grit out irritatedly. "Stop touching him thieving scum."

Surprisingly the man listened grabbing Marius only to shove him over to the cash register putting his gun right back on middle of Marius's back. "Right back to business puppet open the register and count out the money."

"I dddoonn't have the kkkeyyyy." He was suddenly handed a lock pick.

"Oh puppet that's why we have this. Open it and count the money." Seeing the hesitation He turned Marius's head to look at his grouped friends on the ground. The second robber which had been entirely silent at this point grabbed a crow bar giving it a quick spin before raising it over Jehan's head the threat utterly clear.

"Okay! Okay! I'm going." And with that Marius used the lock pick to work opening on the cash register. Finally when it did he painstakingly began counting the money. The money that which belonged to the Musain which was owned by Musichetta. He could only hope that there would be a way to get this back to her somehow.

Jehan took a second to clear his throat. "Oh dear, it seems that I've missed my insulin shot. If I don't get some sugar in me soon, I'll get really light headed and pass out. Am I allowed to get a candy bar from the vending machine? I promise it will take less than two minutes." Robber 2 was considering it, while pirate earring was distracted watching Marius shakily count out all the money.

When Robber 2 spoke, it was with a deeply accented voice. "Fine hey can you watch the group while this princess gets their precious candy bar?" Jehan glared personally affronted. Pirate earring grabbed the money throwing it in his bag before shrugging.

"Alright puppet you know the drill," roughly shoving Marius to the ground ignoring the cries of protest from the sitting men. Marius for his part did what was expected raising his right hand and allowing it to be handcuffed to the lower handle of the bottom cabinet, while trying to take calming breaths.

Jehan took his time choosing his candy bar before pulling out two dollars out of his scarf pocket the robbers had missed earlier. He deliberately picked something, that he knew would always get stuck no matter what. Sure enough... "Oh no I really need that candy bar. Can you help me tip this? I mean clearly my friends won't try anything with that gun trained on them. And if you're going to kill us anyways I'd like for this to be my last request."

Deep accent seemed to accept this logic and proceeded to help tip the vending machine forward with both hands. He was not however anticipating Grantaire to grab his empty beer bottle, that neither of the men had taken earlier and threw it with precise aim at pirate earrings' head. This caused the bottle to break, and for him to stagger back desperately trying to get his bearings and reorient himself.

Bahorel and Combeferre had taken advantage of the distraction to rush deep accent who was trying to right the vending machine and get to his gun. Bahorel gave him a solid right hook, and within seconds Combeferre had stolen the gun.

Meanwhile after throwing that bottle Grantaire had wasted no time in leaving his place on the ground to tackle pirate earring. They grappled for a bit with pirate earring trying to pull out a knife. Grantaire however disarmed him of that quickly, and it wasn't long before the head injury and Grantaire's fighting experience won out. Grantaire grabbed the gun and tossed it to Enjolras who caught it and kept it trained on pirate earring just in case he tried anything.

"I just called the police. They'll be here shortly." Combeferre announced keeping his eyes trained on deep accent in front of him. Meanwhile Jehan and Courfeyrac had gone to Marius to uncuff him and try to calm him down.

Deep Accent accused looking at Jehan. "You tricked me."

Jehan gave a look back equal parts disbelieving and patronizing. "You threatened my friends. Did you honestly expect anything less?"

"Right plus your lack of personality offends me so..." Bahorel trailed off as he finally knocked deep accent out.

Grantaire picked himself up off the ground. "Like I said earlier you were going to regret coming here."

Pirate earring grinned with a bloody mouth at Grantaire and Enjolras. "Smarter than you look the lot of you. Bet your real proud of yourselves congratulating and giving yourselves a pat on the back for this."

"You hurt and terrorized our friend." Enjolras commented flatly his gaze focused on the pathetic being in front of him gun held out still trained on the beaten man. "You really think we're going to celebrate getting the upper hand on thieving scum? Then you must be pretty slow, because we're not remotely happy about this."

"Not to mention you really need to stop talking. The next creepy thing out of your mouth is going to get you punched." Grantaire replied with warning.

"Hmm, it's a shame things ended this way. We could have had so much fun together puppet in so _many_ ways." Casting or trying to cast anyways his gaze at Marius who was shielded by Jehan and firmly in a protective embrace by Courfeyrac. Marius at hearing the name pirate earring had dubbed him made a frightened distressed noise and was promptly soothingly shushed and rocked back and forth.

Grantaire firmly having had enough of this followed Bahorel's example and punched pirate earring's face causing him to go down like a tower of bricks. "What did I just say? Man his voice was annoying as fuck at least now he's shut up." He spit on him for good measure ignoring Enjolras's grimace at the gesture.

Bahorel decided to grab both robbers and restrain them. The rest chose to gather around Marius, and wait for the police to arrive. Marius meanwhile had his face buried in Courfeyrac's neck crying softly.

"I'm going to take him home." He whispered rubbing Marius' back. "He doesn't need to be here any longer."

"The police are probably going to want to question him." Enjolras said apology clear in his voice. While he too wished for Marius to be able to recover in peace, they still had a responsibility to see this through and bring these men to justice.

"Sod the police." Courfeyrac muttered but subsided at least able to see understand the necessity.

"Wait hang on," Combeferre murmured as he rooted through the thieves bags collecting their things back. He pulled out a gold money clip they all knew Cosette had given to Marius for his birthday last year along with his wallet. "Marius did they take anything else from you other than your money clip and wallet?"

Marius pulled away slowly and shook his head before making a swipe at his face to scrub away the trace of tears gratefully accepting the handkerchief Jehan handed him. A knock on the door brought back the reminder of the police. Enjolras answered the door and all the questions he could apart from the ones strictly only Marius could answer. By the end the police had concluded their questioning and had both robbers handcuffed and loaded in the back of one of their vehicles.

Javert, the presiding officer, let them know they would be in touch if they had any further questions. Shutting the door Enjolras walked back over to where everyone was still gathered around Marius who was staring blankly at the ground.

"Should we take him to the hospital or something?" Bahorel questioned staring at the still figure in front of him.

"Let's take him back to Courf's the wounds are mostly superficial apart from his cheek which I estimate will yield a pretty dark bruise in the next few days along with slight bruising around his neck. Joly will no doubt be checking him over multiple times for the next week. Although I am concerned that he may be veering into shock territory." Combeferre answered gently taking a spot kneeling right in front of Marius. "Marius?" Waiting until he had the man's attention. "Do you feel dizzy, nauseous, any ringing in your ears, or overall weakness?" Taking two fingers to the inside of Marius's wrists to get a measure of his pulse taking comfort in the fact that it was steady.

"No," Marius croaked rubbing his arm. "I just want to go home please?"

Courfeyrac looked at his roommate and best friend with such sadness before replying back softly. "Sure buddy we can go home now whatever you want."

"Thank you," The two walked out to Courfeyrac's car while the others kinda followed with Marius seated in the passenger's seat.

"I'll give you guys an update later, when he's less shaken and more settled." The group watched in understanding as the two drove away.

In the many weeks that followed Marius eventually showed signs of improving. He no longer went hardly anywhere alone always having a walking or traveling companion. As the man was currently out on a date with Cosette, Enjolras and Combeferre took the opportunity to pay Courfeyrac a visit.

"How's Marius doing?" Combeferre asked right away.

Rubbing his eyes Courfeyrac paused before answering. He'd been up late last night studying, and while they were tapering off. Marius still had the occasional nightmare, which he'd had last night. "Better Cosette finally convinced him to start seeing a therapist which Valijean agreed to pay for which is helping. He's starting to develop a routine with the visitors.

Feuilly and Bahorel still want to teach him self defense lessons, which I think might be a good idea when he's ready for it. Eponine bought him a few cans of pepper spray, which he carries around or has stashed everywhere. JMB has stopped by a few times with many MANY casserole dishes, and Joly fusses a bit occasionally. Jehan comes by when he can to help Marius with some therapy journal writing assignments. But I have to say the biggest help has probably been Grantaire."

Combeferre tilted him head in thought, while Enjolras merely looked shocked. "Grantaire really?"

Courfeyrac's expression turned wry. "Try to contain your surprise. But he's actually been trying some art therapy with him, and it's working well so far. Marius always looks calmer and happier after coming from a session with him." Taking a second to shrug he carried on. "I think Grantaire likes them too, but either way I'm glad he's taking the time to do this."

Combeferre nodded in thought. In what they have been referring to as the incident for a lack of a better name, it had inspired Enjolras's latest cause. This meant devoting efforts in having more and better silent alarms and anything that could improve the overall hostage situation should it ever happen again.

"Is there anything more that we can help with?" Combeferre asked with curiosity.

Courfeyrac smiled looking pleased. He got up to go get everyone a drink. "Just be there for him and maybe set up a movie night letting him pick? It's been awhile since we've had everyone together."

Enjolras let out a sigh knowing that meant subjecting himself to a night of either Casablanca, Waterloo, or a movie in a different language they would need subtitles for. Nevertheless he dutifully answered. "I'll see to setting that up. It's important for him to know he's a valued member and one of us just the same." His best friends smiled at him for his answer and clinked their glasses in agreement.


End file.
